Crappy film

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

No need to recap the plot. It's an unusual western for the time, with dark psychological undercurrents and noirish stylings. Mitchum carries the movie without changing expression let alone emoting. Not so, Miss Wright who has a little too much malt shop for my liking. Pairing her with the studly Mitchum is risky, to say the least, but she's a good enough actress to manage. The story's dark with some striking b&w visuals, especially those awesome rock monoliths peering down like silent gods. The story's told in flashback such that we're intrigued by the main thread of what it is that haunts Mitchum's character. And that's despite a lengthy and somewhat turgid screenplay given to sub-thread meanderings. I would have liked it better had Mitchum's haunting gotten more screen time. Anyway, the great Judith Anderson gets a sympathetic role for once that also turns out to have some depth. Given the year 1947, Pursued embodies two emerging fashions of the period—concern with psychological afflictions and couched on a background of noirish stylings. The trends characterize many post-war productions, and here even spread into that most conservative of Hollywood genres, the western.All in all, it's a suspenseful story, well acted, with impressive visuals, even though the screenplay could use some tightening up.

Pursued is a very decent picture, very nicely shot, darkly imaginative, and dripping with Noir style, but if it's actually a Noir film then that really is up for debate, as is, if this film really is a Western? It wasn't quite what I was hoping for, and in truth it was a little too offbeat for the frame of mind I was in, but it's definitely one I'll go back to at some point to re-evaluate prepared with the awareness of what type of film it actually is. Robert Mitchum {excellent} is Jeb Rand, who is constantly pursued by assailants all his life. The film is told in flashback from his childhood tragedy when his family were all murdered, with him being the only survivor. Upon learning that there was indeed a survivor, the killers set about erasing Jeb from the planet, thus Jeb spends all his life trying to find out what the hell is going on, and just why did his adoptive mother raise him in the first place?An oddity of sorts because Pursued is thinly embracing a number of genres, stretching the elements of each strand to create a film that once viewed, leaves one very intrigued as to its purpose......... 7/10

A man has been pursued all his life but does not know why. The film opens with Mitchum's pursuers closing in on him and Wright coming to his side. He relates the story of his life to her, seen in flashbacks. It is strange that he tells her the story because she has been a part of his life since childhood. This bizarre film is unlike any other Western, and is really not a Western in the traditional sense. Mitchum and Wright are OK but the characters are not well developed and their motivations are unclear. Walsh enlivens the action scenes but can't rise above the disjointed script, not helped by the awkward storytelling structure.

Moody film noir from director Raoul Walsh has young boy left orphaned by a bloodthirsty band of killers, who dog the boy's trail even after he grows up into Robert Mitchum (seems to me that's the point where they might have given up stalking him). Mitchum smolders, as usual, though his character here is just a thumbnail sketch, and the melodrama inherent in this scenario is far beneath him. Judith Anderson fares a bit better playing the boy's elderly but wise guardian (a clichéd part, but invested with a salty kick by the actress). Lackluster film co-starring Teresa Wright and Dean Jagger just doesn't hold much interest, despite good cinematography by James Wong Howe and an atmospheric score by Max Steiner, top talents all around. *1/2 from ****